Doing What We Want

Can you believe it's Labor Day weekend?  The temperature has dropped 30 degrees from just a couple of days ago (it's only in the mid-50's), and with a stiff wind thrown in, I'll have to dig out a sweater and maybe even a jacket before I head to the farmer's market this morning.  It's chilly enough and windy enough to make me want to stay home, but I won't because there are some things at the farmer's market that I want to pick up today.

We face competing choices on a daily basis.  Some may be as relatively inconsequential as my choices to stay inside and stay warm versus getting blown around a bit at the market.  Other choices may have more consequence.  For many of these choices, neither one is really good or bad - it's not "bad" if I stay home this morning and it's not "good" if I leave the house.  It's really a matter of me deciding what's most important to me this morning and then doing what I want to do.  Sometimes, like this morning, doing what I really want to do is less comfortable than the alternative (staying home would be more comfortable), but if I'm motivated enough (and I am), I won't talk myself out of it (and I HAVE done that on occasion!).

I heard a speaker say that we move in the direction of our own self interest.  In other words, we tend to end up doing what we want to do.  If we haven't clarified in our minds what it is that we want, we will go for whatever is in front of us that provides immediate gratification.  If, however, we know what we want and we are focused on it, we will do what we need to do to get it.  In other words, we will make the secondary choices required to support our primary choice.

The choice to stay on plan or not today is not really a "good choice" or a "bad choice" - it's simply a choice you have to make.  The choice is not inconsequential - you simply have to decide what it is that you want today.  Decide, then choose wisely :-)